The Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Hido Biscevic, participated today in the 8th meeting of speakers of parliament of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) participating states, held in Antalya. The event was organized by the Republic of Turkey, which holds the rotating SEECP Chairmanship-in-Office.

“At this crucial point in time regional cooperation deserves our particular attention, because it is becoming increasingly evident that the synergy between renewed enlargement commitment on the part of the European Union and the new spirit of rapprochement and dialogue in the region needs to be supported and sustained by all policy makers, in particular by the parliaments”, said Biscevic.

He underlined that it was time for the regional cooperation in this sphere to gain momentum, and for the parliaments to act in order to ensure that positive trends in the region are translated into an irreversible process.

“I am convinced that by working together we can achieve the results the citizens of the region count on their parliaments to fulfil – to successfully adopt and implement reforms so as to improve the quality of the citizens’ life and to see the entire South East Europe become part of the European family in a near future.”

The participants adopted a joint declaration that calls upon all the parliamentarians of the SEECP participating States to increase public awareness of European integration processes. It places emphasis on the importance of dialogue, tolerance, peaceful co-existence as well as preservation of multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious fabrics of societies in line with the European standards.

The declaration notes that within a relatively short period of time, the Regional Cooperation Council, as an operational arm of the SEECP, has demonstrated its capacity to transform the vision of regional cooperation into concrete projects.

The meeting discussed strengthening of institutional framework of parliamentary cooperation in South East Europe, cooperation with parliamentary organizations and regional/international institutions as well as combating the negative effects of the world economic crisis on the SEECP participating states – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey.

The SEECP Chairmanship-in-Office rotates annually. Following the 23 June 2010 summit of the heads of state or government in Istanbul, Montenegro will take over the Chairmanship.

Declaration adopted at the meeting is available HERE.